Transformers
Directed by Michael Bay
Rating: 8/10
Transformers is finally here and its not too shabby. First off there have been so many different iterations of Transformers to say that any one is the right one seems completely ridiculous to me, there seem to be only one constant: Good vs. Evil. Everything else is pretty supercilious because for every G1 fan there is a Beast Wars fan and in five years time theyll most likely be TF: Cybertron fans, give it another 5-8 years theyll be Transformers Animated fans, get my drift? So in the end Id say this is loosely inspired by G1 and to be honest I have no problem with that, were seeing yet another take on the Transformers Mythos.
First off lets discuss plot, the ALL SPARK. Supposedly its the magic cube that gives life to Transformers, Megatron wants it, lands on earth, and all hell breaks loose. I thought this was going be lame but in the end it strangely works, it was a nice way to tie everything together especially for non-fans. The biggest deviation for most people was that it focused on Spikes story, this was no where near as bad as people said it was, seriously the idiots on these boards made it out that the TFs were minor characters in there own film, NOT THE CASE AT ALL. Focusing the movie on Spike was smart for a couple of reasons, the first is that hes a non-CGI character, whether youd like to admit it or not, that makes a big difference, it gives us someone real to cheer for. The second reason is this is an origins movie, you got to introduce the Transformers at the right pace. However there are two real negatives to the script, the first major one is the comedy, some of it was really good and needed to break up all the action but they went a little overboard with the comedy to the point where Im pretty sure its going hurt it on repeated viewings. Second due to the nature of the movie outside of Optimus and Bumblebee the other Transformers dont get a lot of characterizations. However this is fine since again its the first movie, the second movie going open the floodgates for this.
The action in this movie is fricking amazing! My jaw hit the floor for nearly the entire film. The robots themselves look so fluid and real, its great. My only beef with the action is that Michael Bay is started to get a bit lazy creative wise, and he keeps reusing shots from previous movies, its not as bad as the Island, however it does take away a little from the originality of the film in terms of shot-value. Optimus Primes voice was amazing, it was great to hear the big guy speaking again, he just gave me tingles down my spine! I loved all the G1 references they threw it, but I wont ruin it for anyone. However where it succeeded at least for me, is that it packed that movie magic so many films are missing now a days. In the little movie theater crammed with a 100-200 people, we all stared on in horror as our heroes got the crap kicked out them as they try to save the world, and for a moment it was as if this were really happening, it was great. So in the end the storys a little weak and a bit too much comedy, however its the first one out of the gate, I cant wait for a sequel.